Next year, Tesla expects to bring to market its Model S, which features multiple configurations, including a base model priced at less than $50,000, according to CTO and co-founder JB Straubel.(Source: Tesla)

Enough with the Tesla Roadster cost disinformation. 0-60 in 3.7 seconds! This is not a family sedan by any stretch of the imagination. The only cheaper comp is the Chevy Corvette at ~60K. Any of the rest ... if you have to ask, you can't afford it. The Tesla roadster is not a commuter econobox - the Nissan Leaf possibly is intended to be.

I expect we'll see more and more electric motors on performance vehicles due to the high low-end torque that electric motors can deliver and due to the ability to provide independently controlled torque on each wheel.

As far as the luxury market is concerned, it's smaller but what it lacks in volume it makes up in price. Eventually, you might be able to compare a Tesla SUV to a Lexus hybrid SUV ... Tesla's target price doesn't seem to be out of line.

Currently 90-100% of electricity is generated from fossil fuels. How will an electric car cut our dependence on fossil fuels? As electric cars increase in number, a greater burden will be placed on the Power Infrastructure, meaning more fossil fuel buring generators. So far, alternative energy sources have been laughable. The only thing this headlong rush to electric cars is doing, is shifting the fossil fuel burden from one sector to another. And may even increase dependence due to the energy lost from the now 2nd energy conversion. I think what we have here is the cart before the horse.

No, solar would never really be possible, but I did convert my lawn mower to solar. There's just enough energy to charge the batteries once a week, and that gives you an idea of how much energy you can collect from a 4 square foot panel. I never thought I'd recover the cost of the solar cells, but with current fuel prices I may even recover the cost of the SLAs too.

Their $109,000 Roadster is equipped with luxuries, Beth. I doubt that would be the case for a $30,000 vehicle. When a customer's battery recently died (it was the customer's fault) Tesla quoted him a $40,000 pricetag for a replacement battery, according to the NY Times. I don't know how they'd have room for luxuries, even if battery price comes down dramatically.

I realize this is probably a pipe dream, but is solar anywhere near to being a cost-effective way to re-charge or improve range ? I think the Toyota Prius has a solar option, but it is only enough to vent the hot air from the interior for a few minutes before driving.

Tesla's price point of $30,000 for its third-generation vehicle will still keep in the category of luxury EV maker as opposed to some of the mainstream EVs like the Nissan Leaf. That said, there is a significant number of folks willing to pay a premium for top-of-the-line cars and EVs will be no exception. Is the high price tag on Tesla vehicles directly tied to the battery or is it because they equip their vehicles with more luxury type features--leather seats, heated seats, GPS, and whatever else is considered standard fare in top-of-the cars?

Industrial workplaces are governed by OSHA rules, but this isn’t to say that rules are always followed. While injuries happen on production floors for a variety of reasons, of the top 10 OSHA rules that are most often ignored in industrial settings, two directly involve machine design: lockout/tagout procedures (LO/TO) and machine guarding.

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